Momentus XT, Momentus, Momentus Thin, MobileMax, and other notebook drives

[AlanM]

Please find the firmware and its instructions here.

[WW_Dagger]

Thanks Alan, I've updated the firmware to SD24, verified the update, and no smoke is appearing so that's good.  I can't tell you if it's fixed the random stutters/pauses until I use the computer for a bit but I'll report back with results.

As a side note, here is what users of windows systems can expect:

DL the upgrade, run it (make sure you UN-RAID your XT drives if they are raided first) and your system will promplty restart and go into the update process. You will see your drives serial number with it's current firmware version, then you will see it doing stuff and then it will display the same drive with the SD24 firmware version. 

If your system hangs after updating with your hard drive light constantly on (as it did with my system), wait a few minutes and go make some coffee, just to be sure you gave it enough time to finish it's thing, then hit the reset switch and reboot. You can verify the firmware versions with HDDScan or Crystal Disk Info. (just google them).

GL.

P.S. Alan, are there any release notes provided with changes to the different firmware revisions?  It would be very interesting to see what the programming gurus over there are discovering and fixing from version to version.

[FoferX]

Any help for an (Intel) Mac user trying to apply this update?  I have an ST95005620AS and the bootable ISO isn't working for me... I can boot from it fine but when I try to apply the SD24 update, I get this:

Model matched, no firmware match! Will not download firmware!
--
Model matched but firmware version is not compatible.

[julian]

Alan: Where can we find the release notes?

[FoferX]

Never mind my issue, I was able to "forcibly update" following the advice of forum member fzabkar.  Had to manually run a command, but it did the trick.

http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Momentus-XT-Momentus-and/Firmware-update-Momentus-XT/m-p/77238/

Seagate, it would be great if you'd (A) cover these bases better and (B) have a native update app for Mac.  It's ridiculous that end users have to jump through these hoops just to get an up-to-date firmware installed.

[nicwise]

installed SD24 on my Macbook Pro (15" i5 2010 model). Worked perfectly.

Can't tell if it's fixed everything, but:

quieter

quicker (esp boot. wow!)

added an hour to battery life at 100% brightness (2.5 vrs 3.5 hours) and a LOAD at 50% bright (now 9 hours!!)

So far, so good. Doing my wifes 13" mid-2009 MBP in a moment - just waiting for the backup.

[1TBsamsung]

julian wrote>"Alan: Where can we find the release notes?"

Alan, I would also like to read the 'release notes'.

Where are they?

I am speculating, that the reason the release notes are so hard to find (non existant?) is that Seagate may view the contents of such release notes [Edited Per Guidelines], which may have been defective firmware.

My view is that most firmware is defective, and benefits from on going improvements.

IMHO the backlash effect will be WORSE, if Seagate has noW embrace a non-publishing of Release Notes mentality, than if Seagate would just honestly and accurately document firmware changes from release to release.

My apologies, if Seagate intended to provide the Release Notes.

BUT WHERE ARE THEY??

[WW_Dagger]

It seems SD24 has fixed the constant stuttering/pausing/freezing that the previous releases were causing.

The thing that buggs me though is that even after HOURS of time spent with Seagate's top tier tech support members, they still refused to admit anything was wrong or that the issues I was having had to be caused by something else in my system.

I feel sorry for the thousands of people out there suffering these problems with older firmware who will never know the reason for it's cause or how to fix it. Nevertheless, I'm very grateful for the eventual solution.

Dual Momentus XT drives in Raid 0 are really really fast. Nowhere near my 256GB Corsair C-300 SSD, but leaps and bounds ahead of my 1TB 5900RMP Seagate LP drive. Now to just convince Seagate to make a terrabyte model with 10x the SSD memory onboard...

[donoterase]

System still up and running 36 hours after firmware update. So far, no adverse side effects, and I have not experienced any of the random stutters/pauses/freezes that I had been experiencing on a dailly basis with firmware SD23. All in all, the firmware seems to have addressed this issue....however, I shall continue to keep an eye over the next week, and will report back...hopefully still running smooth with no random stutter or pauses. Peace all.

- Momentus XT 500GB Drive on HP dv6835tx, FreeBSD 8.1

[nicwise]

And 48 hours later: So far, so good. Full days work with no crashes and no beachballs. All up: SD24 is teh awsomes. yay!

//MacBook Pro 15" i5 2010 model. 500GB XT on SD24.